"You must turn your cooking to art and each time your meal must be an artwork"

Friday, March 26, 2010

Sumalak

Finely today I am posting you the recipe of "Sumalak":)This dish is always cooked for "Navruz" - our national holiday, when we celebrate the beginning of the new year and new life. It is belived that "Navruz" will bring happiness, luck and joy to our lives. Different dishes are made for this holiday as "Kuk somsa" "Kok chuchvara" and of course "Sumalak". "Sumalak" is our ancient and truly national dish. It is cooked for centuries and the recipes can vary region by region, but the ingredients are always the same: flour, wheat sprouts washed in water and oil. Nothing else. It is very strong remedy, it helps to strengthen immune system, it helps to clear the body of chemical waste, rejuvenates it and strengthen the body. It is believed that when you trying it for the first time, you should make a wish and it will surely come true! "Sumalak" must be cooked by nice and kind people, it is sacred and holy meal for Uzbeks. Usually it is cooked by old women and it is cooked all night long, and closed near to morning. We have believe that angels are also participate while cooking this holy meal. People mostly women sing songs, dance and have fun while cooking "Sumalak". We have different stories about the history of this meal, one of them tells that it is cooked by a woman named Fatima. Fatima had 2 sons and was very poor. Because she was a widow and very poor, they had very little to eat, and her sons always cried from hunger. One day, their mother became very tired of their crying, and sorrowful that she had no food to give them. That evening she was so desperate that she decided to cook a meal from some flour, wheat and water. She also put some stone in it and stir it long. After a while she fell asleep. When she awoke in the early hours of the morning, she saw 30 angels standing around the pot. She rubbed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she saw them licking their fingers. She woke up her sons. In their excitement they ran to the pot and found it filled with a most succulent porridge. From that time forth the boys were never hungry. The name of the meal was called "Sumalak" which, the Uzbek people say, means 30 angels. Ingredients:1300 gr wheat4 kg of plain flour1 liter of vegetable oilA lot of drinking water about 18 liters7 clean small stones:)You have to prepare one week advance to cook this meal. First you have to clean wheat from foreign seeds and wash well. Put wheat in clean water and soak for 3 days. You have to change water every day. Just wash it and put another clean water.On the third day drain all the water. Take small pieces of plywood, wash well. Layer wheat on a plywood evenly. It must be thick, about 3 cm. Put the plywoods in dark, warm room. Sprinkle water over it 3 times a day. Don't forget sprinkling water or it will dry up and won't rise. From third day sprinkle water for 2 times a day. Approximately on by the end of the third day your wheat will be ready. But it really depends on your wheat. Just depend on your eyes. it must be like this:You can see that the color of the sprouts is light green. If your wheat's sprouts are like this than they're ready.On back side you can see the roots, they must be white and thin. Now, cut the all of the sprouts and grind them in food processor or in a meat chopper. Pour 10 liters of water in a bucket or just any deep dish. Now place all of the ground wheat sprouts in this water. Wash them well in water, your water will be white as milk. Now pour this milky liquid through the sieve and two layers of the cheesecloth. Squeeze out all of the liquid from sprouts and again wash them in 4 liters of water (separately), again pour through sieve. Repeat this operation one more time. (3 times)You can see that second and the third time water will be not so milky, but slightly white.Now take your biggest crock pot or pot with thick bottom and pour all of the oil, and pour the first 10 liter of milky liquid on it. Add in all the flour also.Now mix all together until no crumbs will appear. I used hand mixer to mix it. Now put your pot on a high heat. Put in stones now. Bring to boil, unceasingly stirring as crumbs will appear easily. After boiling stir 15 min more. You will see that now it is not thick and can boil without stirring. But check and stir every 10 min. I must say that when you first put it on fire, it will crumble a lot, so keep stirring until this crumbles will melt. Don't be afraid, as this was the first time I cooked "Sumalak" just all by myself I was afraid that crumbles kept appear:) They will surely melt don't worry!Now it will boil and boil, and you will keep stirring and stirring it:) Approximately after 4-5 hours it will thicken and color will begin to get brown like this:So it's time to pour the 4 liters of milky water (second water where you washed the ground sprouts). Add in and mix well, again stir while bring to boil. Again boil it until it will begin to thicken. After approximately 3-4 hours add in the third 4 liters of water. Again bring to boil and stir unceasingly. Now you will boil it a little longer until it will finely get thick and dark brown. At the end you have to stir vigorously as it can easily stick to the bottom, be careful! Be careful as it is very thick and it can throw out some hot drops, you should better wear some kitchen gloves to prevent burning. It will look like this:Now, reduce the the heat on very very low, to almost no fire, close the lid and cover it with some towel and leave it for 3-4 hours. Don't open the lid and don't stir! After 3-4 hours (I made it in 3.5 hours)you can open the lead, switch off the fire. Once more mix well and ENJOY this delicious and healthy, tasty and heavenly sweet Uzbek chocolate:)When you open the lid you can see that oil will come out to the surface. We believe that before opening the lid you should pray and wish something and then open it and your dream will surely come true!In Uzbekistan we first of all serve it to our eldest ones. It is served with fresh hot bread and some hot pot of tea. I also like enjoying it with strawberries:) But it is delicious just itself! Hope you will not be afraid to try to cook it. Me myself tried it for the first time and you can see the result! It turned out to be so sweet, that I couldn't stop eating it all day long!Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

84 comments:

What a fascinating recipe! Thank you for posting it. I was in Uzbekistan last September and truly enjoyed your beautiful country. I would love to visit again. Happy Navruz to you, and I look forward to reading more of your posts :-)

wowi like that recipe , it looks little difficult but i think it needs only time .i tried some of your recipes and it was very delicious .i'll try this and i'll post you after a week what happense with me:)

Pretty, you will put whole wheat with it's sprouts and greens, just cut it and put in to the grinder. I am happy that you you've tried and liked my recipes:) If you cook "Sumalak", you will be the first foreign lady I know, who cooked this national dish of Uzbeks, if you will have more questions about the process I will be happy to answer you:)

good morning princess :)i wash my wheat and soak it now for 2 days and i changed the water twise , but the soaking water not smills good if i leave it for 24 hours is that ok? the temperature in the kitchen is always above 26 c

hi princess how are you today?i put my wheat on a plywood and i put it all above on each other , and my husband said no you the wheat should be all on the plywood next to each other spreaded .so what is the right way?

Thanks Pretty, I am fine:)sorry for the late answer. You must put wheat grains all above on each other, thickness must be about 3 cm. You can see on picture that wheat is spreaded thickly. If you layer them next to each other you will not get that thick white sprout under the wheat. This is important because all the sweetness coming from that white sprouts. Hope you will get that:), Let me know soon.

Makush I boiled it only on a hight heat all the time, except the end:) It will take less time to cook. If you are concerned about high heat, you can also boil it on a medium, but it will take more time to cook it:)

Wow Pretty I am so proud of you!!! Good job! Looks just great and am sure it is yummy!!! Welcome sunshine, I so happy that I could help you:)By the way what's your name? I want to know the first foreign lady who cooked sumalak from my recipe:)

Hi.. I will try this too. I wanted to try before but the time made me scary little bit :) Seeing people done, I will do too :) I wanna ask, with that measurements how much sumalak is made and how long does it keep fresh?

Kadife, I didn't really measured the quantity of sumalak, but I think it was about 6-7 liters. I pour it in to bottles and give it away to all my friends. The rest we enjoyed ourselves. I also tried to preserve some in bottles and it was good even after 7 month. Sumalak will keep freshness for about a week in a fridge. And if you don't have stone, than you can add 8-9 walnuts. At the end you will take them out, crack and enjoy the tasty nut:)

Kadife, wheat will rotten in plastic tray, I have heard so. So I didn't risk and get a plywood, and don't forget to make some holes in plywood, as wheat must "breath", ok? And you will put all of the wheat with sprouts and green part.

Thanks for the recipe and help :) It was nice really, but while boiling the bubbles made my kitchen messy :) It was thick and we asked my mother-in-law, she told us to add some water and boil for 2-3 hours. And after that it was better :) My husband liked it..

Hi, Princess..thanks so much..you give more than just a traditional ancient recipe of Sumalak, i was curious about how and what it is, i'm just foreign housewife whose curious about Uzbeks cuisine..and your good English help me a lot to understand the way of cooking, i've tried to make Samsa myself..thanks again..Best Regard..

This is almost like Semeni Halvasi we make in Azerbaijan. Also from sprouted wheat, semeni. We add lots of nuts and spices to it though and shape the paste into round patties. But I am sure the origin is the same. Happy Novruz!

Wow! Sumalak truly reminds me of my childhood in Uzbekistan! I havent't had it for 5-6 years now, and this recipe made me miss it sooo much! I remember when we all gathered together as a family and all the women including the girls used to help with 'cleaning' the wheat. My grandma used to cook it in a massive pot- and because I am starting to forget my uzbek, i think it was called qozon(?). When the sumalak was ready, we served it to the elders, after that the kids had it and then my grandma used to fill up lots of small dishes with the rest of the sumalak and walk all round the neighbourhood giving the neighbours and well respected friends a dish of sumalak. I really used to love it! Thank you so much for this recipe-or should I say -Katta rahmat!

I truely respect whoever tried making this at home! This is a very time-consuming dish but it's sooooo delicious! We used to make it back home in a huge kazan. Thank you for posting. I will try making this for the first time myself :)

I really need to prepare this one. I know about this method of cooking from Iranian culinary sites, they also make a very similar dish. I always wanted to give a try. WHat I need is to reduce the quantity, I should get a smaller portion for the first time :) By the way, my blog is milk-and-pumpkin.blogspot.com, youare very welcome to visit it, Malika. I posted an Uzbek recipe ages ago, but I also made dishes similar to yours, like pumpkin manti (Kazakh recipe from my friend) and fish buns, also Kazakh, but never posted them yet, pictures wait in my computer but I don't have enough time :( Big greetings!

Assalomu Alaykum! I want to make Sumalak at home. So I am ordering wheat via online, but there are two kinds of wheat there - peeled and unpeeled. I have no idea which kind of wheat I should buy. :-) Can you please tell me which one I should order? Thank you in advance! :-)

Thank you so much for your great recipe! I made Sumalak at home and it turned out yummy and beautifully! My family really enjoyed. I really love your blog! :-) Thank you a lot! PS: I really wanna show my Sumalak photo to you! Where can I post the photo on your page? :-)

Thank you for your wonderful recipe! I made Sumalak at home and My Sumalak turned out so yummy and beautifully! My family enjoyed! I really love your blog! PS: I want to show the photo of My Sumalak to you. Where can I post the photos! Thank you so much! May Almighty Allah bless you and your family! :-)

Hello Malika, we are currently in Uzbekistan and had the privilege to be invited to stay with local family in Fergana. Our hostes served Sumalak which we were convinced was made of fruit. A neighbor was able to translate how it was made and we were amazed. I am happy to see your detailed instructions of recipe. We love your country and it's kind people.

I have just started my wheat, hoping I will get the timing right for next week! Thank you for such detailed directions. I am not Uzbek, but I travelled there as a teenager, back in 1983, and I STILL dream of it. STILL my favorite country!!

Hey Malika....happy Navriz to you and family.😊I am an expat staying in uzbekistan for last 2 and half years.. started loving uzbek cuisin,climat and beautiful peaple here!!I love to cook uzbek plov and i am an expert now ;)Every year i used to get sumulak from my husband's friends and this year also i got....i am enjoying right away!!This time i thought i wanna make it all alone by myself and thats how i reached to your beautiful blog!! I never thought that this delicious treat consume so much of time...hats off!! Now i changed my plan and will be making this for my whole family when i go back home India...since here me and my husband all alone :(...it will be fun making this and waiting for end result if we have so much of people around us right?!

Happy to find a uzbek cuisine blog in english and will be surely making some of your recipes!!

Thank you so much for all your effort in explaining in detail!!

Happy cooking 😊

If you wish to find my blog here is the link https://nadiskitchen.wordpress.com

About Me

Have to admit that cooking is one of my favorite hobbies that I practice almost everyday. If the recipes I share will please you and bring joy to your life then mission is accomplished:)
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